Raised in southwest Detroit, White (born John Anthony Gillis) moved to Nashville in 2006 and has since been quoted as stating that he "couldn't take the negativity anymore", and "couldn't breathe anymore in that scene", causing some consternation amongst some of his former compatriots.

However, White told the Detroit Free Press recently that "Those expressions of mine have never been a representation of my feelings about Detroit the city, a town that I have strong feelings about... nor were they expressions about its citizens."

In an attempt to articulate his true feelings about his birthplace, White has penned a poem entitled Courageous Dream's Concern, which you can read in full here.

Putting our literary critic's hat on for a moment, there is some confusion of tense and a few ill-advised rhymes, but otherwise it's not too bad. Is White's effort better than Pete Doherty or Billy Corgan's poetic output? You decide…

Interestingly, during The Raconteurs' performance at Glastonbury 2008, we're pretty sure we heard White introduce the band as "The Raconteurs from Nashville, Tennessee". The plot thickens…